


You Wear An Empty, Dressed-Up Finery

by makbaes (gentlemindedlostgirl)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, Demigods, Its kinda a percy jackson au but the roman camp not the greek camp, M/M, Roman Myths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 05:25:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18204107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gentlemindedlostgirl/pseuds/makbaes
Summary: “Hush your blush and cover-up, there's worry on your face. Cultures captive, blessed men believe in awful things. You're dancing 'till your feet both bleed, I wanna hear you sing. I still see you. You're wearing empty, dressed-up finery.”Johnny Suh is a son of Cupid, yet no one's ever been in love with him. Nor has he ever been in love with anyone. That never bothered him until a mysterious man named Ten appeared in New Rome.





	You Wear An Empty, Dressed-Up Finery

**Author's Note:**

> I: have a hundred outstanding projects  
> The muse: wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote this. 
> 
> This can stand alone, but there's a chance I'll post more of it as a series if the Fates decide this story needs to be longer. (It feels like it does. We'll see).

People thought it bothered Johnny. One of the demigod sons of Cupid, it probably  _ should  _ bother him that while he could make just about anybody fall in love with so much as a snap of his fingers or a wink of his eye, nobody ever seemed to fall in love with him. Nor did he ever really fall in love himself.

It  _ had  _ bothered him, when he was a younger adult, and he had spent more of his time watching Jaehyun and Jungwoo--the half brothers he was closest with--constantly fend off people trying to fight for their affections while he spent his time carefully crafting that Sicheng, a son of Mercury, would come together perfectly with Taeil, son of Vulcan (it worked, naturally, over time. Johnny had always been more patient than his brothers when it came to these pursuits. He was so good at what he did that everyone else was silly enough to think it had been their own ideas). In a fit of lonely anger, he had confronted his father in a temple and demanded to know if he was cursed--if he or his mother had done something to piss off a God or Goddess who then decided Johnny would be doomed to watch everyone be in love and never feel it for himself. 

He wasn’t cursed. It just hadn’t happened for him yet. 

At twenty-four now, having graduated college in New Rome and serving as a Senator, he truly wasn’t bothered by being one of the rare few children of Cupid without a long romantic history to speak for. He had other things to worry about--like making sure Camp Jupiter was running smoothly and looking after the new campers (particularly Jisung Park and Chenle Zhong, sons of Neptune and Mercury respectively who always seemed to get into trouble in one way or another). He had made a life for himself outside of romance, defied the stereotype of his family that the only thing they were good for was love. He had been a warrior, one of the strongest fighters in his Cohort, had gone on a number of missions, fought monsters, and Gods, came back and got himself an education, he was a leader. He was so much more than who was or was not in love with him.

All in all, he was happy with his life, satisfied with the way things had worked out. If the Fates decided he would fall in love, he would, and it would happen when they wanted it to. Who was Johnny Suh to disturb the universe? 

People came to New Rome and Camp Jupiter during all walks of life, but always exactly when they were meant to. Most of the time, this meant that they arrived when they were young and impressionable, easily convinced about the idea of old Gods and quick to train and prove themselves. While this tended to be the norm, there were always exceptions. And when someone came in by non-traditional means, it made news fast. 

So Johnny could predict what Jaehyun was going to say when he ran up to Johnny after a Senate meeting, his eyes alight with excitement and a grin painting his features. 

“Who is it?” Johnny asked, not bothering to look up from his papers as he put them in order. “What’s their situation?”

Jaehyun deflated, but only slightly before crossing his arms over his chest and pouting at his brother. “One of these days you’re going to let me have fun, Suh.”

“Doubt it,” Johnny said, smiling as he finally looked over to Jaehyun. “So are you gonna tell me, or no?”

“They’re calling him Ten,” Jaehyun explained, the excitement returning to his tone. “I don’t know if that’s his name, or like, a nickname, or whatever. Rumor has it Proserpina brought him here  _ herself.”  _

That caught Johnny’s attention. He raised an interested eyebrow. “Now that’s something. How old’s the kid, should we be getting him bunk space?”

“That’s the thing,” Jaehyun said, shaking his head. “He’s twenty-three.”

Johnny settled back in his chair. It wasn’t that people  _ never  _ came in when they were in their early adulthood. It just wasn’t common. And it was even  _ less  _ common that they came at the hands of a Goddess. Whoever this Ten was...he was special. And Johnny, who erred on the dangerous side of curious, was determined to find out why. 

“Have you met him?”

Jaehyun shook his head. “Nah, I only saw him when Taeyong was giving him the tour. If I didn’t know about the Proserpina thing, I would’ve thought he was one of ours. Or maybe Apollo’s.”

“Why do you say that?”

“He’s pretty,” Jaehyun shrugged. 

Johnny waved off that insignificant detail and stood up from his seat. “Well,” he said, “At any rate, it’s about time things got interesting around here again. I’ve been bored ever since Mark and Xuxi left on their mission. Any updates on that, by the way?”

“Jaemin said he got an Arcus message from Mark. Things have been smooth so far, save one fight with some sort of sea serpent, but they handled it no problem. They’ll be back by Thursday, Gods willing.”

Johnny nodded, satisfied with that answer as he led Jaehyun out of the building. “Let’s see what this Ten kid’s deal is.”

* * *

 

 

Johnny wouldn’t actually meet Ten for another two weeks after his arrival in New Rome. His reputation preceeded him, though Johnny would take everything he heard with a grain of salt. If he was to believe rumors, Ten was everything from a con artist, to a ballerina, to an assassin. And while he absolutely wanted to unwrap the mystery of their new neighbor, it was hardly as if he had the time. Johnny had eventually resigned himself to the fact that he might never actually meet the young man.

He should have known the Fates had other ideas. 

If Johnny had his way, the two of them would have met in a more dignified manner that reflected the world the young Senator had built. Of course it wouldn’t go that way. Instead of meeting after leaving Senate, or after he had trained Centurion candidates, he had run into Ten quite unceremoniously at the post office. 

Johnny had noticed that there was a beautiful stranger there, but that wasn’t so unusual. Many of the residents of New Rome were otherwordly due to their Godly parentage, and it was such a large place that it was impossible to know  _ everyone.  _

But no one had ever taken Johnny’s breath from his lungs the way this person had. This stranger seemed hand-sculpted from only the finest materials, features delicate, but he held himself with the confidence of someone who  _ knew  _ that they were crafted to be a heavenly weapon. That was dangerous. Cockiness like that had gotten stronger heroes killed. If he had been one of Johnny’s pupils, he might’ve told him to snap out of it and be humble. 

And yet, Johnny could not even so much as ask this person to step out of his way--any word he attempted died on his tongue before it could even leave his mouth. It was only when the postal worker noticed Johnny and called out to him that he remembered himself. 

“Senator Suh,” the man smiled. “Yes, your package arrived from Chicago this morning. I’ll go get it.”

The small stranger hummed in interest and turned to look at him. Suddenly Johnny felt completely bare in front of his judgemental gaze and he didn’t like that. He straightened his posture in an attempt to correct this.

“You look a little young to be a Senator,” the stranger mused, a curious and amused lilt to his tone. 

Johnny shrugged as if this were no matter. “There was a spot open, I put my hat in the ring. It’s good to have young people in there, the older folks forget what it’s like.”

That answer seemed to please the person, a catlike smile gracing his face. “Do I have to call you Senator? Or do I get to know your first name?”

Johnny shook his head. “Mr. Kim shouldn’t even be calling me Senator, he’s known me since before I could hold a sword. I’m Johnny.”

“Pleasure,” the other said as Mr. Kim returned with two packages. He handed one to Johnny, and the other to his companion. The young man thanked the postman and took his parcel, stepping too close into Johnny’s personal space and grinning like the cat who caught the canary. “I’m Ten. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again, Senator.”

Johnny couldn’t help but watch as Ten left. He swallowed harshly as his heart dropped in his chest. 

* * *

 

Johnny was pacing back and forth in his father’s temple, every so often glancing back to the food offerings and the burning incense that was tingling his nose. His hands were folded behind his back as he went, mumbling to himself. “Get  _ down  _ here, dad, we’ve got  _ bullshit  _ to talk about.”

“Now is  _ that  _ any way to speak to your father, John?” a smooth, honey-like voice replied. 

Johnny stopped his walking and turned to the chair where now, indeed, his father sat, plucking a grape into his mouth as he crossed one leg over the other. 

Cupid had a round face and wide eyes. If one didn’t know better, they would mistake this for neverending kindness. Johnny and any other child of his knew differently. Soft did not mean vulnerable or to be taken advantage of. Cupid looked to his son now like he was a child who didn’t know what to do now that he had broken his favorite plaything. 

“I thought I was supposed to be cursed,” Johnny snapped, long past the point of formalities or fear. 

Cupid chuckled and shook his head. “John, you were never cursed, I told you that when you were eighteen. You just weren’t  _ ready.”  _

“Ready for what? Him? What makes him so special?”

“That’s not for me to tell you,” Cupid replied. “I think you’re the only person I’ve ever met that’s been  _ mad  _ about a soulmate.”

Johnny groaned, balling his hands into fists. His father didn’t understand. Of course he didn’t. “No,  _ no.  _ I’ve worked too  _ hard  _ for everything I’ve done to be chalked up to me preparing for a soulmate. I didn’t become a Centurion to fall in love, I didn’t become a Senator to fall in love, I did that for  _ me. _ ”

“Of course you did,” Cupid said, sounding bored with the conversation. “And the fact that those things will also  _ happen  _ to be advantageous to your companionship with this Ten is merely icing on the cake.”

Johnny shook his head. “I refuse to be in love with him.”

Cupid simply smiled. “It’s adorable that you think you have a choice.”

* * *

 

Johnny did everything in his power to avoid Ten over the next month. He knew better than nearly anyone there how futile that was. If Fate and the Gods had decided that he and Ten would fall in love, he should have gone in willingly. It would have been easier for everyone involved if he had. But he had always been too stubborn for his own good. So rather than allowing the small moments when the two of them ran into each other to evolve, Johnny ran the other way. 

Ten, for his part, didn’t seem to be too bothered by this. He integrated himself into the camp perfectly well. He became particularly close with Sicheng and Kun, which felt dangerous, if Johnny were to be completely honest with himself, but it wasn’t like there was much he could do about it. He made a life. He worked in the dance halls and the theater and soon it would have been difficult to believe that the young man was still a newcomer. 

And yet, nearly two months after he had arrived in New Rome, nobody seemed to know him. He was a son of Pluto, that much was now evident, but the rest of his story was mostly speculation. Though he had friends, students, and mentors, nobody could speak on the more intimate details of his life before he arrive in New Rome. 

Johnny hated that he figured this was supposed to be where he came in. He fully planned on putting off the inevitable as long as he possibly could. He’d had a number of shallow conversations with Ten since their first meeting, usually about whatever was happening in the space that they happened to meet in, but Johnny purposely kept things curt so that he could ignore the pang in his chest that occurred whenever the young man walked into a room. 

But he knew he couldn’t avoid him anymore when word had come around that Chenle, who had recently been sent out on a mission, was gravely injured. 

Ten had taken the young son of Mercury under his wing. As much as Ten would whine about him and teased him to no end, it was no secret that he cared deeply for the teenager, and this news devastated him. All of New Rome could feel the effects of his on Ten, there seemed to be a dark cloud over the weather-controlled area, and everyone’s chests felt heavier. 

Johnny knew as a Senator, and someone who had been watching over Chenle since he had arrived at Camp Jupiter years prior, he had a duty to attempt to console Ten when he found him sitting at the docks staring gloomily into the sunset. 

“He’ll be fine,” Johnny said as he sat down next to Ten, letting his legs hang over the edge of the dock. “I trained Chenle myself. He’s a fighter. Jeno and Donghyuck will make sure he’s healed and back here before we know it.”

Ten closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re a son of Cupid,” he said simply. “Do you know when people are falling in love? Can you sense it?”

It was a startling question, caught Johnny off guard. “It’s...more complicated than that,” he explained. “It’s like...everyone is connected by threads, yeah? Some people’s threads are thicker and stronger than others. I can sense compatibility. Sicheng and Taeil, right? Imagine their threads are a strong, braided rope. I can see that they work well together. Taeyong and Jaehyun…” Johnny hummed as he tried to think of an appropriate metaphor. “Sewing thread. Easily snapped.”

“I can sense when people are dying,” Ten said, still looking out into the water. “Everyone is a light. When you’re healthy, it’s blinding. When you’re dying, it’s dim until it goes out.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin. Johnny recognized it as something Chenle usually kept on him as a good luck charm of sorts. “Chenle is flickering. He’s dying, and it’s my fault.”

Johnny balked at that. “Ten, Chenle is in Indonesia fighting dragon-like monsters. How is his injury your fault?”

Ten took Johnny’s hand and placed Chenle’s coin into it before curling his hand into a fist around it. “I asked him to give that to me so that I could have a tether to him. So that I could tell if he’s hurt. But it’s his good luck charm, it’s blessed by the Gods. If he had that with him, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. But I got sentimental and selfish and now he’s dying.”

It was then that Johnny noticed how tired Ten looked, the dark bags under his eyes, and how he seemed to be shivering, curled in on himself. Without thinking, Johnny took off his jacket and put it around Ten’s shoulders. It was a reflex, an action resulting from a life of constantly looking after other people. Ten allowed himself a small smile as he hugged the jacket around himself. 

“Chenle’s a good fighter, I can speak from experience,” Johnny said. “And Hyuck’s one of the best healers we have. He may be a little worse for wear right now, but he’ll be alright. And he’ll be looking for this when he gets back,” he said, handing Chenle’s coin back to him. “And he’s not going to blame you for whatever happened out there. You just want to make sure someone you care about is safe. If any of us could use our powers to do the same thing, we would.”

Ten hummed, looking back out on the water as if he were searching for something he might never find. “You’re a good man, Johnny. I can see why they elected you.”

“Come on,” Johnny said, standing up and waiting for Ten to follow suit. “You’re not allowed to sit alone and mope and think about all the what-ifs. When was the last time you ate?”

Ten was about to open his mouth to protest, but in a moment of pure serendipity, his stomach growling betrayed whatever he had been about to say. 

“That’s what I thought,” Johnny replied. “I make pretty decent pasta. And besides, that’s my favorite jacket. You can’t keep it. So come on, you can keep it on until we get to mine. Jae and Woo are out, you won’t get harassed.”

“Shame,” Ten smirked as he stood up. “I think this jacket looks pretty damn good on me.”

It  _ did  _ look good on him--it was too large, it made him look even smaller than he actually was. But it wasn’t a bad thing, it was adorable, endearing in the way that if he had been out in it on his own, an onlooker might assume that he was wearing his boyfriend’s clothes. Johnny shook his head. He couldn’t let his mind go there. “You don’t look half bad,” he shrugged as he started walking towards the apartment he shared with his brothers. 

“You’re terrible at flirting for a son of Cupid,” Ten chimed as he followed after him.

Johnny scoffed, though his heart skipped a beat. “I’m not flirting with you, calm your ego down. Aren’t you supposed to be moping? Stop using me as a coping mechanism. Just because I’m a son of Cupid doesn’t mean I’m easy.”

Ten hummed in amusement, and the two of them made light chatter as they got over to Johnny’s apartment. It was a modest thing, but they didn’t need much. The brothers that shared it were hardly ever in it--Jungwoo was  _ far  _ too busy attempting to capture the affections of a son of Apollo and working on his senior year of university, and Jaehyun was either working or at Doyoung’s place. This meant that Johnny was often alone when he got back from work. Which he never truly minded, but he had to admit...a little bit of company that wasn’t his family was nice.

“It’s cute,” Ten chimed as he hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter without even a second thought or asking Johnny if it was alright. 

“Are you a cat? Get down from there, we eat on that, I have to put ingredients on that counter,” Johnny said, trying half-heartedly to wave him off of it. 

Ten scrunched his face up into a smile. “ _ Meow,”  _ he replied. 

“Gods, you’re  _ annoying,”  _ he said as he started to gather what he needed for the simple meal he had planned. Still, he couldn’t help the fact that it felt like Ten was meant to be a part of his space. It almost  _ bothered  _ Johnny that this didn’t feel like the first time they’d had a conversation of substance--having Ten in his apartment felt as natural as breathing. 

They made idle small talk as Johnny cooked. He felt like he was slowly unpacking the enigma that had entered the town, but there was still a distance to him. There were questions he artfully avoided answering--where were you from before here? Why come to New Rome so late? But Johnny learned smaller details that were somehow no less intimate. He had a penchant for sweets, but didn’t particularly like eating fruits. He had a small caffeine addiction. He didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel things just as deeply as everyone else. Chenle and Renjun were the closest things to little brothers he ever had, and he would walk through fire for them if he needed to. He had always found a home in dance, a way to express himself in a way he could never seem to sort out with words. 

By the end of their dinner, Johnny did feel like he probably knew Ten better than anyone else in New Rome. Which was saying something, given the nature of their conversation. Ten eventually asserted that it was probably time that he returned to his own place, which was just around the corner, but still, it was dark, and getting late. Johnny had equipped him with a different jacket of his that  _ wasn’t  _ his favorite, that he claimed he didn’t wear much anymore anyway, and besides, it got cold at night, and yeah it was a short walk, but that didn’t mean he should freeze. 

When Ten was about to leave, he turned back to Johnny in the doorway and offered him an inquisitive expression. “Hey. You said earlier that you can’t sense romance. You sense compatibility like strings.”

“Yeah?” Johnny replied, more question than answer because he had no idea where Ten was going with this. 

“Can you see it for yourself too?”

Johnny chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Yes.” It was something he never liked. He resented that he could see roughly the way the relationships, even platonic ones, would play out in his life. It made everything feel more temporary in nature. His siblings had managed to get over it, or else ignore it, but that had never been a talent Johnny had learned to master. 

“What does it look like for us?” he asked, cocking his head to the side like a curious puppy. 

Johnny closed his eyes, taking a moment to visualize the strings between himself and Ten as if he didn’t know, as if he hadn’t known it deeply since they had first run into each other in that post office. He could lie. He could tell Ten that they were dental floss, that Johnny was not worth his time and that they should really just stop running into each other, cut things off right now while it would still be easy for the both of them.

He knew that was a bad idea. “Braided rope,” Johnny replied as he opened his eyes back up to look at Ten. 

Ten hummed and wrapped Johnny’s hoodie tighter around himself. “Then maybe you should stop running the other way when I walk into a room, dumbass.”

Before Johnny could form a proper answer to that statement, Ten closed the distance between them and leaned up a little to press a kiss to his cheek. He smiled and turned around to leave, calling out “Good night, Senator” as he went, leaving Johnny standing in the doorway with his jaw dropped. 

He was  _ never  _ going to forgive his father for this one. 

 

* * *

 

Chenle came home five days later, a little worse for wear, but completely alive. When he arrived, Ten put on a brave face and hugged the son of Mercury close. You would only notice the way Ten’s shoulders shook if you were paying close attention. He refused to cry in front of everyone else as he whispered a litany of apologies into the younger boy’s ear. 

He saved his tears for later. When he thought he was alone. When Johnny always seemed to find him. 

“You know, we really have to stop meeting like this,” Ten said, wiping his eyes on the sleeves of what had once been Johnny’s hoodie. Ten had found himself a secluded corner of the library in the reference section where no one ever went. “You’re going to think that all I ever do is mope.”

“It’s something you do an awful lot,” Johnny teased as he rifled through the shelves to find the book that he had honest to Gods originally come here to find. 

In truth, the two of them had since spent more casual time together. They had met up for coffee once in the days since that first night in Johnny’s apartment, and Ten had actually appeared at a Senate hearing as an ambassador for Pluto.  _ That  _ had been a particularly impressive moment in Johnny’s eyes. Ten was powerful and articulate in a way that most people his age were not--even ones with training from Camp Jupiter. It just made Johnny all the more curious as to what his life had been like before entering the camp. 

“Yeah, well,” Ten started, but then shrugged and left the statement at that. 

“I’m glad Chenle’s fine,” Johnny said as he finally found the book he had been searching for. “I told you he’s a strong kid.”

“You can say it as much as you want, but if it was Mark or Hyuck that had been hurt, you would’ve been just as big a wreck. 

Johnny shrugged. He couldn’t deny that. He had plenty of friends in New Rome, but when it came to those young men, there was something different. It wasn’t as if he  _ actually  _ raised either of them--but in a manner of speaking, it felt as if he had. The two of them had been young teenagers when they came to Camp Jupiter, and Johnny had overseen their training and adjustment to the camp. Now Mark was a young Praetor, a strong leader who would likely join the Senate himself someday. Hyuck was one of the best young healers in the camp, even if he was something of a mischief maker. His heart was in the right place, and he brought joy to every room he walked into. Johnny was proud of the people they had grown into. He was proud that he had been a part of that. 

“I still told you,” he said as he opened the book, flipping though to find the information he needed. It was all the result of a dumb bet that he had with Jaehyun that he refused to lose. But if he could just prove that he was right and that the temple they had been arguing about had been built in 1622 and  _ not  _ 1429....

“Do you get off on being told you’re right, Senator?” Ten mused from where he sat, staring up at Johnny. 

Johnny snorted, caught off guard by Ten’s bold question. “Don’t call me Senator,” he avoided. 

“One of these days you’re going to admit that you’ve got a power complex,” Ten grinned, standing up in a feeble attempt to somewhat meet Johnny in height--or at the very least, get closer to being on the same level as him. 

“What makes you think I have one?” he said, unconcerned as he put the book back in its proper place (he  _ was  _ right, and Jaehyun was going to have to eat his damn words). 

“Takes one to know one,” he said as he looked Johnny up and down unsubtly. This was not the first time Johnny felt completely undressed by his gaze. He had a feeling it was far from the last. 

Johnny couldn’t counter the fact that it seemed pretty clear that Ten’s favorite thing in the world was being one of the most powerful and captivating people in the room. He held himself with an air Johnny couldn’t place. The same cockiness that he had placed the first time they met. Like he knew he was something so much more than everyone around him. 

“You’ve got an awful lot of ego in such a tiny body,” Johnny teased, though his heart started racing as Ten continued to inch closer to him. He didn’t move away as Ten traced his cold fingertips up his arm and drew a shudder from his body.

“I should probably return this sweatshirt, shouldn’t I?” Ten said. Johnny knew what he was really suggesting behind his innocent tone and wide eyes. He didn’t think he could say no to him even if he wanted to. He absolutely didn’t want to. 

“My brothers will be out for the rest of the night,” Johnny replied. “Why don’t you come drop it off yourself?”

“Excellent,” Ten hummed and walked past Johnny to leave the library. 

Johnny was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that he was willingly walking into his own funeral pyre. He was okay with that.

* * *

 

“Do your brothers ever come home?” Ten asked as they went into Johnny’s apartment for the second time. 

Johnny couldn’t help but laugh. “Sometimes. Mostly when other men have the gall to tell them ‘no’. Which isn’t often. Especially now that Jaehyun’s getting more serious with Doyoung.”

“A son of Bacchus with a son of Cupid sounds like a shitstorm waiting to happen,” Ten mused as he hopped back up to his spot on the countertop again. This time Johnny didn’t bother to attempt to get him to move. 

“You’d think it would be. But their strings...it’s pretty strong.”

“Braided rope?” Ten asked, looking for the comparison again. 

“Not quite,” Johnny said. “But it doesn’t have to be. Not every relationship has to be like that. They’re somewhere between fragile and forever.”

Ten nodded, seeming to drink that in for a moment. “That must really suck,” he said. “From Jaehyun’s standpoint. To really like someone and know...that they might be stronger with other people.”

“It’s not fun,” Johnny confirmed as he tidied around the kitchen--Jungwoo had a nasty habit of not putting plates and cups in the sink and the two of them were  _ really  _ going to have to have a conversation about that, but that was neither here nor there at the moment. “But like I said, not every relationship has to be braided rope. Not every marriage that lasts ‘till death do us part’ is braided rope. Compatibility isn’t the marker of what makes for functionality. Two people can be really compatible but never work.”

“Where do you think that puts us?” Ten hummed. 

Johnny stopped his tidying and looked over to Ten. His gaze was curious--not critical, not analytical, simply wondering. He looked beautiful there, in Johnny’s far-too-large hoodie, the sleeves drowning his hands. Someone who didn’t know him would have said he looked fragile. Those people would have been fools. “I don’t know,” Johnny said honestly.

“Is that why you kept running for so long?” he asked. Something in the way Ten looked at him made him feel compelled to leave his station of cleaning and walk over to him, allow Ten to wrap his arms around his neck and pull him close. Too close, his breath on his skin made Johnny feel like a man drowning with a Siren’s song playing in his ear. And he couldn’t bring himself to care. 

“We don’t know each other,” Johnny replied, which felt true even if it really wasn’t. There were things about Ten Johnny still didn’t know--things no one in New Rome knew. There were things about Johnny that he wouldn’t know how to articulate even if he  _ wanted  _ to tell Ten. “Why do you talk about us like you know something I don’t?”

“Why do  _ you  _ talk about us like you don’t know something you do?” Ten countered, leaning closer until there was nowhere left to go. His lips were soft and reminiscent of a warm cup of tea, something honeyed and Johnny knew in an instant that he was a weak man that had just found his newest addiction. 

“I don’t understand you,” Johnny said as his lips ghosted over Ten’s neck, hands exploring hips, asking for permission he wasn’t sure he’d be granted. 

“You never will,” Ten replied as his fingers tangled into Johnny’s hair, yanking his head back and giving him full access to the long column of his neck. Here, Ten claimed his prize, nipping at his skin and marking him. “You can’t understand a God.”

“You’re not a God,” Johnny breathed, hand sliding under his shirt and mapping out the expanse of his chest. 

“Aren’t I?” Ten challenged, smirking against his neck before biting down again and sending shockwaves through Johnny’s body. 

Ten  _ was  _ a God. He didn’t know how he knew, but in that moment, he was absolutely certain of it. Ten was something holier than even he could comprehend. It was one question answered, but instead of feeling as if he had closure, instead he found himself drowning in even more curiosities. 

A well-placed knee between Johnny’s legs shut all of those questions up quickly. He would ask them all later, during a better time. He had a feeling he would actually get answers when he did. Instead, he pulled Ten off the counter, let him wrap his legs around Johnny’s waist and carried him to his bedroom. 

Johnny had never been very good at the religion part of being a demigod. It was one thing to know you were descended from something divine--it was another to be laying one of those divine beings down onto his bed and painting kisses down his collarbones in a vague approximation of worship. And though Ten was the one presented at the altar, it seemed he was the one praying, fingers moving into hair as Johnny’ name sang from his lips, eyes closed and mouth parted as his back arched up. 

As he looked up at Ten with half-hooded eyes, he thought that he needed to go to temples more often.

* * *

“Will you ever tell me who you are?” Johnny asked, fingers toying with Ten’s dark hair as they lay tangled in each other in Johnny’s bed.

“You know who I am,” Ten replied. 

“No one knows who you are,” Johnny said, shaking his head. “You said you’re a son of Pluto.”

“I  _ am  _ a son of Pluto. I also said I’m a God. These things aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Johnny simply looked at Ten, urging him to continue with the explanation. Ten sighed when it became evident that he wouldn’t be able to weasel away from this one. “I’m the son of Pluto and Proserpine. Death and Rebirth.”

“So why New Rome?” Johnny asked, not understanding what a God would want to do with mere mortals, even if they were partially divine. 

Ten simply shrugged before stretching. “I wanted to know what it’s like to be human. It’s lonely in the underworld, only mom and dad as your companions. The souls...they’re either boring or overconfident. They think befriending me will help their chances at a better afterlife. I wanted to go somewhere people wouldn’t have an agenda with me. If people wanted me in their lives, I didn’t want it to be because they thought they had something to gain from it.”

Johnny figured he could understand that. It sounded lonely. It explained why Ten held himself the way that he did. Ten could afford to be cocky because he was deathless. 

“That’s why Chenle’s situation scared me so much,” Ten explained. “I didn’t want to go back to the Underworld and have to see him there. Not now. Not while he’s so young and has so much left to do.”

“Chenle’s life is not under your control.”

“But it could be,” Ten said. “I have that kind of power, Johnny. Lives are so easily strengthened or weakened. It’s part of the reason I asked for Chenle’s coin. That tether meant that I could keep him from dying and I almost failed.” Ten sighed, sagging against Johnny’s chest. “What good is a God that can’t protect the people he loves?”

“I thought the point of you coming here was to be a human, not a God,” Johnny mused. “Humans have plenty other uses. What have been the best parts of humanity since you’ve joined us? What do you love about New Rome? You’ve stayed this long,  _ something’s  _ keeping you here.”

Ten thought about that for a moment, sitting up in the bed and resting himself against pillows. As Johnny looked him over, he wondered how he could have gone so long without knowing that there was nothing human about him. It seemed painfully obvious now--even the most beautiful people in this city were not nearly so breathtaking. 

“I like the ballet,” he decided. “I love that you work together to make something beautiful through dance. And I like pasta, and pancakes, and how everything that tastes good seems to be covered in butter,” he laughed. “I like that you’re collaborative learners--you build things like libraries so that everyone can have any information they want whenever they want. I like that you can’t take no for an answer even when you know it’s a losing battle. Humans are so resilient.”

“You’re a part of all that too,” Johnny said. “You made a life here. Chenle, and Renjun, and Sicheng, and Kun, they don’t know you’re a God, do they?”

Ten shook his head.

“And they care about you. They like you for the human parts of yourself that you’ve shown them--your sense of humor, your caring heart, your intelligence. You’re more than a God, Ten. You’re a person too.”

Ten smiled. “I was right about you--that night on the docks. You’re a good man. Even when you’re running from the inevitable.”

“Did you know about us?” Johnny asked. It was the last big question he had, and it was an answer he felt that he needed. “That night when you left my apartment, you made it sound like...you knew what our connection was like.”

“I didn’t,” Ten promised. “When we met...I knew we were drawn to each other. That something was there. So I had my suspicions that there was something there that was...bigger than either of us. I didn’t know until you said that we were braided rope.”

“Rope doesn’t mean functionality,” Johnny said. And how could they work? His lifetime was the blink of Ten’s eyes. He would get older, and lose his youth, and Ten would grow uninterested. They only had so long, and Johnny had never known love before, and he didn’t want the first one to be so destructive. 

“Since when have you ever subscribed to expectation?” Ten asked. 

Johnny couldn’t argue with that. If this was his fate, if he was going to be in love with a God, he was damn well going to make the most of it. “You make a good point,” Johnny hummed as he pulled Ten closer to him, tracing his fingers down Ten’s chest and bringing their lips closer. 

Jungwoo’s sugary voice announcing his presence into the living room jolted the two of them out of their moment in Elysium. Ten burst out into laughter while Johnny was left to scramble around for his clothes. Ten, for his part, didn’t seem to mind his state of complete undress. 

“You’re supposed to be at Yuta’s!” Johnny whined. 

“Oh my Gods, did you bring someone  _ home?”  _ Jungwoo asked, his tone bright and excited as he rushed over to Johnny’s room before Johnny could get the door shut. 

Ten wasn’t bothered by being caught, and had at least the decency to cover himself with Johnny’s comforter before he waved at Jungwoo. The noise that left Jungwoo’s throat was somewhere between delight and shock. 

“Oh I’m calling Jaehyun  _ right now,”  _ Jungwoo declared as he pulled his phone out. Johnny let out a noise of protest as he physically started to fight his brother for the cell phone.

Ten, from his spot lounging in bed, decided that he was very jealous of humans, and was excited to see what a life with Johnny Suh would look like. 

 


End file.
